When Paul McCartney introduced Dave Grohl to AC/DC
After rising to fame as half of Kurt Cobain’s rhythm section in Nirvana, Dave Grohl was lucky enough to befriend and collaborate with some of his longstanding musical idols. Perhaps his biggest “pinch me” moment came when he met Paul McCartney, since, from a young age, Grohl learned to drum by playing along to records by The Beatles.
In 2002, Grohl and McCartney crossed paths for the first time at the Royal Albert Hall during the Concert For George, a tribute to the late George Harrison. The Foo Fighters frontman was invited to perform by Dhani Harrison, George’s son. Since then, Grohl and McCartney have maintained a strong bond, sharing many memorable moments together in the years that followed.
Memorably, McCartney inducted Foo Fighters into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 and joined them on stage for an accompanying performance. McCartney returned the honour at Glastonbury Festival the following year when he invited Grohl on stage for a rendition of ‘Band on the Run’.
Away from the public eye, Grohl and McCartney have enjoyed several pleasant evenings together at private functions and casual dinners. On one such occasion, the pair wound up dining with members of the Australian hard rock progenitors AC/DC.
Grohl recalled when he first met AC/DC in a 2021 interview with Anders Bøtters Tiny TV. “I wasn’t performing at the Grammys; I was presenting an award or something. I’m lucky to say that Paul McCartney is a friend, and I love him very much. As much as he’s a hero of mine, he’s also a very sweet man and a friend. And so he was in town, too. He called and said, ‘What are you doing after the Grammys?’ I said, ‘I think maybe me and Pat [Smear] and Taylor [Hawkins] are just gonna have dinner.'”
“He said, ‘Do you mind if me and Nancy come?'” Grohl continued. “I’m, like, ‘No. That’d be great.’ So then he bumps into AC/DC in a hotel or something. And then they say, ‘What are you doing after the show?’ And he says, ‘I’m gonna go have dinner with the Foo Fighters.’ And Paul said, ‘Do you wanna come?’ So Paul’s wife calls my wife, and then my wife says, ‘Hey, do you mind if AC/DC comes to dinner?’ And I had never met AC/DC.”
Amongst Grohl’s myriad luminaries was a healthy supply of heavy rock acts, including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and AC/DC. Grohl remembered falling in love with AC/DC after watching one of their concert films at the cinema. “When I was maybe – I don’t know – ten years old, I went to see that movie Let There Be Rock, the live concert film, in a movie theatre,” he said.
“This is before I was punk rock,” Grohl added. “That was the first time I saw a performance and heard music that made me wanna fucking break something. And still, to this day, I use that as a reference for how I like to play a show. I wanna be like AC/DC ‘Let There Be Rock’. That’s a live band!”
“So then we had this beautiful night. And there was this jazz band. And it was one of the greatest nights of my entire life,” Grohl reflected.
Following the death of Malcolm Young in 2017, Grohl paid tribute to the late rhythm guitarist. “Thank you, Malcolm, for the songs, and the feel, and the cool, and the years of losing control to your rock and roll,” he posted.
Dave Grohl appears particularly fond of the AC/DC classic ‘Let There Be Rock’, which Foo Fighters have covered on several occasions. Watch the band perform the song during their BBC Radio 1 ‘Live Lounge’ session below.
